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Encyclopedia - Snipers

While sniping was both a
recognised military practice and hobby (the hunting of birds or big-game)
was known to date back at least until the eighteenth century it had not been
developed as a professional arm of the warring armies of Europe in 1914. Early proponents of sniping
in the First World War tended to be talented amateurs drafted in to the
armed services once it became clear that this peculiar brand of war was
ideally suited to the static conditions of
trench
warfare.

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Big-game hunters such as
Hesketh
Hesketh-Prichard worked hard to transform the quality and practice of
sniping within each army. Prichard was to later publish a summary of
his work, Sniping in France (1920).

Training schools were
established in each of the belligerent armies. Civilian
rifles -
even elephant guns - were initially issued until standard army rifles were
modified to suit the requirements of sniping; optics in particular required
substantial development. The German Army quickly arranged for
telescopes to be attached to their G98 service rifle. So-called 'hyposcopes'
were developed which enabled rifles to be fired from below the
parapet line.

Snipers operated on all
sides during the war; Turkish sniping proved an especial problem for Allied
troops based in Gallipoli. In static trench conditions the
ever-present danger of snipers ensured that it was a foolhardy soldier who
raised their head or arms above parapet-level, even fleetingly.

The quality of sniping was
such that fatalities were common even where men exposed themselves to fire
for a fraction of a second. In part this was because snipers were
expected to thoroughly accustom themselves to the layout of the land which
fell within their domain - which included the exact composition of enemy
trench lines. Eagle-eyed sharpshooters proved extraordinarily deft in
detecting slight changes in geography.

Nevertheless snipers were
reluctant to fire unnecessarily at anything but a certain target. Once
the enemy was able to detect the locale from which a sniper operated
artillery would be promptly despatched to wipe out the sniper's post.
It was therefore a highly dangerous occupation.

Captured snipers could
expect scant consideration from the enemy, particularly given that snipers
would often be expected to shoot men involved in entirely peaceful tasks
behind the enemy line. Civilian snipers -
franc-tireurs -
were regarded with even less favour and were relatively common within
occupied Belgium during the early months of the war.

Snipers invariably operated
in pairs. The sniper would usually be accompanied by an observer who
would often make use of a periscope ('sniperscopes') in order to scour the
surrounding countryside. The nature of such a telescope rendered the
observer less likely to fall casualty to enemy snipers in turn.
Both sniper and observer would wear camouflage uniforms to further obscure
their presence.

Successful snipers, usually
acting under the direction of battalion headquarters, were sometimes inclined to
keep tallies of their 'score', as was the case with airmen. Their most
valued targets were inevitably officers and specialist servicemen. In
retaliation each army also trained sniper hunters (including the poet
Julian
Grenfell).

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Saturday, 22 August, 2009Michael Duffy

A Kite Balloon was an observation balloon controlled by a cable from the ground.